The Best Of 2009

Another year in gaming has almost passed, so with it comes an inevitable Top 5 picks. Be aware that these are not my definitive choices for the year, but instead simply video games that I want remembered and commended. I’m well aware that the other writers on Thumbsticks have loved similar games to me, so rather than simply replicating their choices, I want to choose sleeper hits that may otherwise go unnoticed. Hope you’ve all had a fantastic year and I’ll see you in 2010!

If you had asked me twelve months ago to try and predict my ‘top five of 2009’ list, none of the titles below would have made the cut. To me this really personifies the year in gaming.

We’ve had dozens of western releases pushed back to 2010 (Bioshock 2, Heavy Rain and Final Fantasy 13, etc) but as a result we’ve also had a number of sleeper hits creep through. Where on earth did Batman: Arkham Asylum and Scribblenauts erupt from? (More)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!
JetSetNick

Okamiden: Chiisaki Taiyo Looks Promising

Okami was yet another underloved classic, a visually stunning title swept under the rug despite every reviewer shouting its praise. It was lucky enough to get a port to the Wii, but even hungry Zelda fans looking for another hit of action-adventure couldn’t help boost its sales. So most gamers were surprised when Capcom recently announced Okamiden, the franchise’s debut on the Nintendo DS.

This time you’ll take control of Chibiterasu, a puppy version of the wolf god Amaterasu who starred in the original. Chibiterasu can still use the celestial brush, but he/she won’t have quite the same muscle as the sun godess we’re all used to. To make up for this, Okamiden features three partners who you’ll team up with in order to once again restore the balance of nature.

I wouldn’t blame you for thinking this is just a cutesy port, as the mission setup will feel pretty familiar to Okami veterans. You’ll be doing chores to help the local village, such as using the brush to making sakura trees bloom or helping fishermen catch a big haul. This time you won’t just be controlling your own abilities though. Capcom say that the relationships Chibiterasu has with his/her partners will greatly affect the storyline and gameplay, so you’ll able to control their actions fully with the touch screen. On the videos from TGS we could see a young girl flipping switches and collecting items, which seems pretty remedial when you consider the other innovations from Okami. Hopefully the partners will have a heavier influence on the puzzle solving that I loved in the first game.

Even for the Nintendo DS though, this game looks lush. I’m constantly surprised at what this platform can produce in the graphics department, as Capcom has managed to bring the harsh brush strokes and watercolour palette across without any noticeable compromise. It might not be at quite the same quality as top titles on the PSP, but it’s sure to turn a few heads when your sitting on the bus.

The only downside to this is the choppy framerate. At times the combat felt a little slow and jarring, which is a shame considering the Wii version made such big improvements with integrated motion controls. The animation in Chibiterasu’s attacks just didn’t feel quite as smooth as Amaterasu, especially when switching from action to stylus input. Still, Okamiden is early in development and there is obviously a lot of time for improvement. The familiar environments and characters means that gamers will feel instantly at home and i’m sure Capcom will put in plenty of development to give it the polish it deserves. Lets just hope it gains enough support to keep this fantastic series alive.

MCM Expo: May 2009

On the 23rd and 24th of May, London’s Excel Centre played host to the MCM (movies, comics and media) Expo convention. It’s a great place for fans of Japanese culture to dress up in costume, meet like minded fans and check out new games from their favourite publishers. There are tons of stalls selling anime, manga, figurines and video games. Below are some of the pictures I took in my trip up to the convention.

Leaving Bournemouth at some ridiculous time in the morning. *Yawn*

PSP and a copy of GamesTM; what more do you need on a train journey?

Off the train at Waterloo station

With half the underground lines shut, coffee was needed to work out an alternate route!

Stormtroopers are very, very cool

Chozen noodles, simply brilliant fast food

The entrance line was stupidly long

Lots of Gundam merchandise to drool over

The MMORPG Dofus was free to try out

Some of the costumes were made with a lot of tender care

A host of anime themed games were being promoted

Naruto Shippuuden: Ultimate Ninja 4

Family Trainer, using a dance mat controller for the Wii

Family Ski & Snowboard, using the Balance Board on Wii

Rygar, shown at the Tecmo stall

Batman: Arkham Asylum demo was available!

Bumblebee, promoting Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Our Expo crew; i'm in the orange

You can find out more about the Expo at the official website here and here. I had a great time and will no doubt be attending the next London MCM Expo which is set for October 24th and 25th. Next week is my thoughts and opinions on the PSP game Daxter!

OnLive: Gaming in the cloud?

So over the past few weeks there’s been a lot of prophesising, criticism and acclaim over the unveiling of OnLive at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference. Before I give my personal take on it, it’s probably worth noting that this service is still in development. You won’t be seeing this on store shelves during the next few weeks and only the creators know if it will stand up to millions of people logging in at once.

OnLive is an on-demand, internet gaming service. Using the cloud strategy that has become increasingly popular with Google’s mail service, the basic idea is that everything you play will be processed online through a separate server. When you play a title, everything you input into the controller will be uploaded and then played out far away through OnLive’s internal hardware. The result is then streamed through the internet and back to your screen so that you can see the results. Imagine an interactive version of Megavideo or Vimeo for gamers and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what is trying to be achieved.

Mirror's Edge being showcased on the system

The idea of having your video game played somewhere else sounds very detached to me. To combat this OnLive are boasting lag so minimal, you won’t even realise the online server is doing all the work. Every game should feel like it’s running on your own system. Rather than having to keep a hefty console by your side, the application will run on both Windows and Mac operating systems as a browser plug-in. Unlike current alternatives such as Steam, you won’t need to download anything to your hard drive. If you prefer to do home gaming through your TV set, you’ll be able to buy an OnLive ‘MicroConsole’. This is a tiny little box that hooks up using a HDMI cable and supposedly will cost less than any console currently on the market.

Intrigued? I was by this point. If OnLive can interpret, process and stream a title as fast as they claim, the only requirement for gaming will be an internet connection. Technically, you should even be able to use this cloud technology on your tiny Netbook. As long as your ISP is fast enough, titles such as Crysis and Bioshock will finally be available at their highest performance specs. For the Apple Mac users out there that have struggled to build a game library, this could be the much needed solution.

The MicroConsole will be used as an adaptor for TV sets

The service of OnLive is likely to be paid through a cheaper, but similar system to Microsoft’s ‘Xbox Live’. However, publishers and developers will be able to give you different ways to buy their games. You can pay just one instalment to keep the game forever, or a smaller price to rent it for a week. Currently, renting PC titles is pretty rare because pirating is relatively easy. OnLive should be able to stop this trend by holding your titles online. Once you’re logged into OnLive you’ll be able to see all of your friends, what they’re currently playing and snippets known as ‘brag clips’. Similar to trophies and achievements, at any time you can hold a key and record a ten second clip of the game you’re playing. It automatically uploads to your profile and is then published for the world to envy.

OnLive sounds almost too perfect, but there are a lot of potential snags. Although the majority of home owners have the internet, not everyone is using broadband or wireless. That means a lot of consoles are played permanently offline, and without the necessary connection speed it rules out OnLive completely. The developers argue that lag won’t be an issue, but play testing has currently only been done with about 50 machines in the room. Who knows how well the servers will handle taking on millions of users at a time. Likewise, if half of us are logged on with dial-up connections there might be a few problems.

How it all works

The success of Steam has unfortunately attracted the eyes of hackers. One of the major concerns I have with holding everything online is that there is always a danger your account can be lost. Once someone else gains access to your profile (which has happened on Steam and Xbox Live already) it can be banned and time consuming to recover. Purchased games have to be bought again and friend lists need to be recreated. With a physical disc, at least the title and receipt are kept firmly with the user.

I’m also a big fan of second hand games. As positively as OnLive would promote renting, the concept of buying games second hand or sharing with friends would be completely lost. In our economic climate, I believe it’s also important to try and keep our video game shops alive. Buying directly through OnLive could be better for individual publishers, but it cuts out any healthy competition between stores.

A wall of brag clips?

OnLive could be revolutionary, but it relies on a number of factors being perfect. Nearly every publisher needs to be on board and the servers are going to need outstanding reliability. If all of this comes together though, we may just be seeing the next step in gaming. The invitational Beta service will be available this summer, with a final release date being set for later in 2009.

Fragile and Mad World

Before our current generation of consoles, I was a proud owner of a Nintendo GameCube. In school, I was ridiculed by casual students for playing titles such as Tales of  Symphonia, Windwaker and Beyond Good & Evil. Nintendo was deemed as too ‘kiddy’, aimed at a demographic of less than ten years old. Gamers all knew otherwise, but that was the perception my peers used to have. I had great faith when the Wii was in development, (codenamed Revolution) but imagined it as an even more underground, critically respected platform. I was sceptical that they could claim the family audience with this machine, but if anyone had the creativity to pull it off; it was Nintendo.

With Twilight Princess in the works as a launch title, the Nintendo game plan seemed obvious; claim the traditional, ‘hardcore’ gamers as the majority of consumers, whilst tempting the families with a bundled version of Wii Play. As we all know, the casual gamer market has exploded since then, turning Nintendo’s fortunes around into the biggest console war U- turn I can remember. The Wii is in more homes now than I dare to count. Everyone seems to be playing Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, with the word “kiddy” being lost to the wind. If anything though, in my opinion Nintendo has capitalised too much on this new consumer, so that traditional games are few and far between.

Enter a new game called Fragile: Sayonara Tsuki no Haiyko, released at the end of January. Developed by Namco and the team behind Baten Kaitos, the game puts you in a post apocalyptic world not too similar to Fallout 3 or I Am Legend. You take on the role of Seto, a fairly standard JRPG lead who is searching for any survivors. Rather than latching on the motion controls as a cheap gimmick, the Wii remote is used as a flash light, allowing you to search the wreckages for vital clues. It may not sound very revolutionary on paper, but in a survival horror game atmosphere is everything. Incorporating something as crucial as a torch is highly engaging and draws the player into the drama. Seto is just a young boy, piecing together stories so that players can discover how this disaster came about.

Whether it will ever hit western shores is anyone’s guess. Yet it’s these kinds of games that show that new innovation is still possible for the Nintendo Wii. I beieve even families will eventually tire of the same mini-game/party titles that are constantly rehashed for another cheap profit. The ‘big N’ has released most of its first party franchises, leaving 2009 looking stagnant on the release list. That needn’t be the case. Famitsu magazine gave Fragile 31 out of 40, a positive score for a critical publication. Surprisingly, Sega has announced Mad World a game that also seems to be pushing the boundaries. The stark visuals are in black and white, leaving only the blood in colour for a Sin City style gore fest. I just hope that these titles can be noticed and find a well deserved place on Wii owner’s shelves.

I’ve held off buying a Nintendo Wii, waiting for a substantial amount of games to be released that I would like to own. At the moment I’m usually renting Wii titles and playing them on my friend’s consoles. 2009 will be a make or break year in my eyes that will show that either the Wii has more fight in it, or is simply content to bathe in record breaking profit. Innovation, don’t let me down.